Community

Congratulations!My heartfelt thanks go out to all my Zuggies for an amazing tier. We started this expansion hoping to fill a raid team and ended up completing our Ahead of the Curve achievement. Killing Imperator last Thursday (1/29) was one of the highlights of my Warcraft career. Thanks to everyone who made this possible, especially the Paradigm crew, Supersqueeze for all his support, and (above all else) Crusade for his tireless dedication to our guild. It has been a whirlwind of a couple months, but we are in an amazing place, and I look forward to continuing our success into the next tier of raiding.

End of Tier Survey (25 EP).

Before we run off to the next tier, the officers would greatly appreciate your participation in a brief reflection on your experiences in House of Zug during the Highmaul tier. Although your participation is optional, your feedback goes a long way to influence positive change in the guild. To reward your time, we are offering 25 effort points as incentive. Instructions can be found here, and reflections are due no later than Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015.

House of Zug Swag is finally here!

You’ve been asking for it (forever). And it’s finally here! Get your very own House of Zug t-shirt or Zug mug today, courtesy ofZazzle, a leading print-on-demand site. We chose Zazzle because of their high customer satisfaction, incredible selection, and endless customization options for swag. I’ll be the first to admit that the swag is a little pricy ($15 for a coffee mug); however, the alternative to print-on-demand would require me to both take possession of guild member’s money and keep inventory at my house, neither of which I want to do.

Please DO NOT buy swag to support House of Zug! Although the guild does get a 5% kickback (that’s the minimum), 95% of your money goes to Zazzle! So please only purchase items if you really want them. Since Zazzle forces me to take 5% of all purchases, whatever money I have earned will go toward contest giveaways on the website (although realistically it’s pennies per transaction, so don’t expect too much).

However, if you’re into swag, I certainly hope you enjoy. Kaylith has offered to become “The Swagmasta” and will be helping me run the store. So please, if you have any ideas or suggestions on items to add or color combinations that are not currently represented, please let her know, and we will do our best to add more selection.

(Note: I just bought a HoZ coffee mug, so when it arrives, I’ll do a review on the quality for those interested.)

Pushing Forward.Goals for Blackrock Foundry.

Moving on the the meat and potatoes, we have some goals to set. Blackrock Foundry debuts on Tuesday, Feb. 3, and House of Zug plans to be knocking at Blackhand’s gates. This tier will introduce 10 new boss encounters spread across 4 new wings. However, unlike Highmaul, we will be entering into Normal-BRF slightly overgeared. Our team’s average item level on our Imperator kill was 664.2 which is well above the 650 recommended item level. However, these will be new encounters and should be respected appropriately. At this time, we are prepared to announce the following goals for Blackrock Foundry:

Obviously, killing bosses is at the top of our priority list, so it should come as no surprise that we have set our sights on Heroic: Blackhand. You can expect the same level of dedication, preparation, and focus on progression as in Highmaul. As far as Mythic, it will not be a priority this tier. Our Guild Charter states that we seek to “[c]lear all relevant normal and heroic-mode content and earn raid meta achievements before the end of each content patch,” so, for now, we are sticking to this plan. Nevertheless, Crusade and I recognize that Mythic is a natural next step in our progression. Therefore, beginning in BRF, we will begin shifting much of our attention away from recruiting new raiders and focusing more on developing the ones we already have (see next item) in the hopes of being more prepared for Mythic in the future.

Logs, Feedback & Development Forums.

Beginning the first week of February and each week thereafter, raiders will be given the opportunity to earn 25 additional effort points (EP) for analysis of their logs. The officers will present a weekly question which will challenge raiders to explore their logs and post their analysis. The purpose of this activity is to raise awareness for the power of logs analysis and encourage community-wide strategy discussion. Players should feel free to comment on one another’s threads, provided the feedback is respectful and constructive. The officers will be reviewing this forum daily and commenting on your findings. Each analysis represents the same EP as approximately an hour or raiding and should be given appropriate reflection. These reflections are graded on a simple pass/fail grade and are meant to be fun and informative. Although this analysis is completely optional, it is a fantastic way to effectively earn an extra raid night of EP every month.

Kor’Kron Introduction.

The long-awaited Kor’Kron rank has finally arrived, and qualifying raiders will now be allowed to apply for this prestigious rank. If you recall, the Kor'Kron rank is reserved for players who make a special commitment to the raid. Unlike the Gladiator who is free to sign up for raids as his or her schedule commits. The Kor'Kron is expected to maintain an 85% or higher attendance rating and give advanced notice if he or she will miss a raid. Kor'Kron are the core of our team, and in exchange for their commitment to us, Kor'Kron are granted a guaranteed invite to every raid (which will become very valuable come Mythic-difficulty). To learn more about the new Kor’Kron rank, visit the House of ZugRaiding Charter.

Reminders & New Policies.Flexibility & Focus.

House of Zug sets out to offer flexibility to raiders with significant career, scholastic, or familial obligations that would otherwise prevent them from raiding. However, it is important to note that this tolerance and flexibility does not extend into our raids. When HoZ raiders sign-up and attend a raid, they are committing themselves 100% to the event at-hand. They are prepared, inside and out, for every single encounter we will face. They arrive on-time, stay for the full duration, and remain focused. The flexibility HoZ provides leaves us with a very small window of opportunity to raid. Those who make the time expect their teammates to value this commitment and time by presenting only their best possible selves.

Effort Points Awarding Change.

In order to be more fair to those who attend events in full, the 100 effort point participation award will no longer be given out as a lump sum at the end of each raid. The Loot Master (likely Crusade) will award a 25 EP on-time bonus at 5:30 PM (PT) for those grouped inside the instance, followed by a 25 EP mid-raid award at our extended break (typically around 7:30). The final 50 EP will be awarded like usual at the end of the raid. House of Zug does its best to accommodate players with rough schedules, but it’s reasonable to expect that those who do not participate fully should not be awarded as if they did. Obviously, communication is always the best policy, and many of you already have arrangements with Crusade to accommodate your schedules. If you have concerns about how this policy will affect you, I encourage you to speak with him directly and see what you can work out. He’s a pretty reasonable guy and respects people who take responsibility for their calendars and communicate their schedules in advance.

Non-Upgrades.

It has been brought to my attention by Crusade that a few players have been requesting pieces that are actually downgrades for the class. I know everyone knows that items are not always upgrades just because their item level is higher. However, I also know that once the loot menu pops up and the timer starts ticking, unprepared players tend to panic. Remember, part of being prepared for raiding means keeping a list of potential upgrades from each boss. Personally, I keep Ask Mr. Robot’s “Bonus Roll” feature open in the background at all times while I raid. It allows me to quickly reference what bosses to use my coins and which items are upgrades (and how meaningful the upgrade is to my player power).

Gladiator iLvl raised (again).

The item level requirements for Gladiator have been lifted again to 645 to prepare for our BRF progression. Requirements will increase again on Feb. 15 to 655 and again to 660 on March 1, 2015.

New Loot Language.

In response to feedback, we have tweaked the language slightly on the EPGP LootMaster addon. Instead of reading “Main Spec,” the first selection now reads “Major Upgrade.” This should be slightly less confusing and require players to put a little extra thought into the impact of the upgrade on their player power.